Five new original templates are now available on my online store. All are 6″ x 4″, clear, and coated with a protective film. Most of them are free-form, and can be used for making pendants, earrings, and bracelet links.

In a couple of weeks, a new line of plastic templates for metal clay will be available on my store. The initial release will consist of five templates. I designed these for my upcoming enameling workshops, but they can be used for any other application. In designing them I had in mind free forms for pendants and earrings, which don’t seem to be widely available. Here are renderings of the templates:

A new workshop taking place on three separate dates is now listed on my Online Store: These three dates are all the same workshop: Torch-enameling on Copper, Steel, and Bronze Clay. The focus of the workshop is preparing pieces structurally suitable for enameling while using the advantages that are specific to the medium of metal clay.

The workshop takes place at my studio in Berkeley, California. The total cost of the class is $500 plus materials. After signing up you will receive a list of tools required for the class, as well as a list of accommodations around the studio.

The number of participants is limited. Please note that January 12 workshop is currently full. If you have any questions please contact me at hadarjacobson@gmail.com.

Here are a few photos representing the type of projects that we’ll be making in class:

The first edition was published in 2009 and went out of print about a year ago. The second edition is up-to-date with the developments that have occurred in the metal clay field since the publication of the first edition.

The first part of the book covers the possible combinations of copper and bronze. This is a good reference for anyone who would like to start making mixed metal jewelry. There is also a discussion on the concept of married metals, and an overview of other possible combinations of clays in a married metal design.

The second part covers the combination of copper and silver and discusses the issues of firing these clays together. Two projects introduce the technique of mokume-gane in copper and silver. As it turns out, most projects can be done with White Bronze instead of silver, without compromising the look and strength of the pieces.

The third part includes projects which combine copper, bronze, and silver as components. It covers textures, forms, movement, and mechanisms.

Besides the project samples, the book includes over a hundred photos contributed to the second edition by metal clay artists. Thank you all for your wonderful work. The book would not be complete without you.

It’s now time for a second edition of my third book: Mixed Metal Jewelry from Metal Clay, which went out of print quite a few months ago. The new edition will come as a CD and is planned to be published around the end of this summer.

Those of you who have the first edition, and those of you who haven’t but have pieces of mixed metal to show, are invited to submit photos for the new edition. Any combination of metals is accepted, including silver and base metals, even pieces that only have separate components made of different metals. All brands are welcome.

The requirements:

The photos should be high resolution, at least 4″x4″, 300dpi.

Deadline: Please submit the photos as soon as possible, or no later than August 15, to my email address: hadarjacobson@gmail.com.

For credit purposes, include your name, photo title, and the name of the photographer, if applicable.

The first travel-teaching class is the annual Tucson workshop which takes place on February 10-12, 2017, during the big gem show. This year the topic is structural carving, which means forming sculptural objects by subtraction, starting from a solid lump of clay.

The second class is actually 2 separate back-to-back workshops in Lafayette, Louisiana. The first one is 3 days, on March 22-24, 2017. It covers preparing forms for chip and rock inlay. This class is almost full.

The second one is on March 25-26, 2017. This workshop covers hand-forming and texturing vases and knobs, then coloring them patina-style.

In the never-ending pursuit of hollow forms, I’ve been working over the past year on a new way of creating them. In fact, this way is the opposite of any hollow-form technique I’ve been using so far. Instead of building up the forms from layers of wet clay, I treat dried chunks of clay as if they were rocks or chunks of wood and carve the forms into them. Carving may be a misnomer, since this term is usually conceived as surface decoration. In this case the carving is structural, and there is no surface decoration. The surface of the pieces is either solid-smooth or perforated.

Sculpting by subtracting material rather then adding it, as done in wood and stone sculpture, requires some adjustment of our brain muscles, since it makes us think “in reverse.” This is not an easy task, but the results are so rewarding! Once you start using this technique, new ideas keep popping up and endless possibilities open. Many things that are very hard or impossible to make in metal clay because of the nature of the wet clay and its consistency, are made possible in this way of sculpting.

The photos below are samples of what I’ve done so far. I will keep posting as new techniques come up.

I’ve scheduled two sculpting/structural carving workshops for 2017. These are 5-day intensives taking place at my studio in Berkeley, CA.

January 12-16, 2017: this class is currently full. Please email me at hadarjacobson@gmail.com if you wish to be on the wait list.

February 22-26, 2017. This class is still open. Please sign up here by paying the deposit.

My next 5-day intensive will take place on October 6-10, 2016, at my studio in Berkeley. You can sign up by paying the deposit on the Classes page of my online store. Upon signing up you will receive a list of tools to bring to class, a map of the area, and a list of places to stay near the studio.